The United Nations in 2008 celebrated both its 60th year of peacekeeping and the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The year also witnessed the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, a worsening global food crisis, and concerns that climate change could perhaps offer the greatest long-term challenge for international cooperation.

Financial Crisis

The global credit crisis, which began in 2007, threatened to destabilize many countries and bring financial devastation to countless millions of people. The IMF in October 2008 launched an emergency lending program to help large emerging market economies deal with the crisis. Under the program, countries with sustainable debt and a record of sound financial policy were allowed to borrow up to five times their financial contribution to the IMF with few conditions attached. At year’s end the situation was still uncertain, with most major economies struggling to contain the fallout. (SeeSpecial Report.)

The already-severe world food crisis, spurred by a decline in agricultural production and an associated rise in food prices, was exacerbated by the financial crisis as many governments moved to protect their food supplies. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that 36 countries were in need of emergency assistance and that a disaster was looming unless countries made food security a top priority. During 2008, 40 million additional persons were forced into hunger, bringing the total of the world’s hungry to about one billion. In mid-December 2008 the FAO reported that it needed $5.2 billion urgently to feed 100 million people in severe crisis. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported to the General Assembly that the food crisis was expected to drive another 100 million persons into poverty. (SeeSpecial Report.)

Peacekeeping and Security

During 2008 the UN fielded 18 peacekeeping missions utilizing more than 112,000 troops, police, and civilians, with a total budget of more than $7 billion. These operations ranged from providing support to political processes in places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, and Lebanon to supplying comprehensive support to efforts to demilitarize conflict areas and reestablish judicial, police, security, and good governance capabilities in war-torn areas. There were 12 ongoing UN political peace-building operations, notably the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), with nearly 1,300 personnel, and the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, with an authorized strength of 1,014. Troops and other personnel were contributed by 117 member countries. By far the largest contributors were Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India, followed by Nigeria.

The UN mission in the DRC was the largest, with 17,000 peacekeepers, but it proved insufficient in the face of growing violence along the border with Rwanda, where Tutsi and Hutu rebels battled each other. By mid-November 2008 the number of refugees in the DRC had grown to more than one million in the face of increased violence. Adding to the tense situation in the strife-ridden country, elements of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), hiding in the huge Garamba National Park, launched raids on villages near there and in neighbouring Central African Republic (CAR) and The Sudan. A special summit, held in Nairobi in early November, was attended by the leaders of Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, as well as Ban Ki-moon. The summit produced what was termed a multipronged agreement calling for a cease-fire and a commitment to send African Union (AU) peacekeepers to the front lines if UN peacekeepers could not protect civilians.

The Security Council in July 2007 approved UNAMID, a joint AU-UN operation in the Darfur region of The Sudan with the core mandate of protecting civilians. Although the mission began formal operation on Dec. 31, 2007, deployment was hampered by political problems with the Sudanese government and by shortfalls in contributions of troops, police, transport and aviation assets, and logistic support. When fully deployed, UNAMID would be the largest peacekeeping operation in history and would have nearly 20,000 troops, 6,000 police, and a significant civilian component.

Somalia remained high on the list of international security concerns, with increased piracy off the Somali coast adding to the deteriorating situation in the failed state. On Dec. 16, 2008, the UN Security Council passed a resolution urging countries and regional organizations with the capacity to deploy naval ships and aircraft to thwart further piracy. It authorized countries to “take all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia” to suppress acts of piracy. The secretary-general urged the Council to consider the problem in the context of building comprehensive peace and restoring stable governance to Somalia.

The UN Peacebuilding Commission expanded its work to include Guinea-Bissau and the CAR in addition to its ongoing efforts in Burundi and Sierra Leone. In the latter two cases, the commission assisted in electoral processes and facilitated multistakeholder dialogue. Forty-five member countries pledged $267 million to the Peacebuilding Fund.

In regard to nuclear proliferation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in October that the theft of nuclear materials was disturbingly high, with nearly 250 cases reported in the year ended in June 2008. In September the IAEA revealed that Iran was failing to cooperate with its investigators and was continuing industrial uranium enrichment in defiance of Security Council resolutions.

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